


When the Ashes Settle

by Destril



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Darth Vader Lives, Gen, Introspection, Leia and Piett talk about Vader, Leia and Piett talk about what is next, Piett Lives, Piett and Vader helped to bring down the Empire, Post Alternative Timeline of Events, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:29:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27509863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Destril/pseuds/Destril
Summary: In an alternate timeline Piett and Vader ally with the rebellion in the days before the battle over Endor and help fight against the Empire. After the Emperor is killed Piett finds himself living in a future he never thought he would see where the Empire is finished and both he and Vader survived. As the rebellion celebrates their victory Piett and Leia talk about what comes next and what it takes to forgive and move forward.
Relationships: Firmus Piett & Darth Vader, Leia Organa & Firmus Piett
Comments: 3
Kudos: 59





	When the Ashes Settle

**Author's Note:**

> I 100% blame the Star Wars Creatives discord I'm in for this story's creation because before them I barely knew the name Firmus Piett and now here I am wanting to write about him. 
> 
> This story was a writers block buster in my own headcannoned AU of Return of the Jedi where not only do Piett and Vader survive, but they had helped the Rebellion in secret leading up to it. 
> 
> Maybe one day I'll actually write that timeline and make this a series, but for right now this is just a little snapshot of a possible scene from that universe. I absolutely love the political landscape of star wars and stuff like this so this may also become a fun little area for me to just play with that casually between my other works. Regardless hope you enjoy!

Former Admiral Piett stared around him as people cried and hugged and shouted and expressed all of the emotions he figured he likely should be feeling right now. After all, it was over. The Emperor, he felt a shiver run down his spine at the mere thought of the creature which had puppeteered them all for so long, was dead. He was alive. The rebellion had won with hi- their aid, and it finally seemed as though the galaxy as a whole was ready to rebuild.

His eyes slid to the quickly applied wrappings on his side, and he tensed his abdomen slightly, causing it to twinge. The pain grounding him in this reality that, for the life of him, he couldn't force himself to believe. Because yes, it was over, but it had cost. Little gods, it had cost them so much.

The rebels were treating him like a hero. Someone who had risked everything to set things right, to make sure that vital information was smuggled out and into the hands of those who could end this. But his risk was nothing compared to the sacrifice of every single person who had manned the second Death Star till its final moments. The brave souls who had given their lives so that others could escape. His crew, loyal and brave who had stood with him during the hardest days and had chosen him when the time came, many of whom had perished during the attacks or been injured yet had stood up again to finish the fight at his side. His ship, his Lady, damaged nearly beyond repair, now drifting in orbit, still defying everything to keep her crew safe. 

They were the heroes, the ones who had given everything, not him.

"Admiral?" 

The Princess stood slightly ahead of him, her stance open, but her eyes, those eyes, they held the understanding that even he hadn't fully come to himself. 

She was disheveled, still dressed in camouflage from when she and her team had taken down the shield generator with a fresh bandage around her arm where he knew she'd been shot. 

"Princess." He replied with a small nod of respect before giving her a rueful grin. "I'm afraid you may need to start calling me simply my name soon."

Leia gave him a small smile in return, but it was far too sad to be on her face when she was meant to be celebrating.

"Perhaps. There are about to be many changes. Who knows how things will go from now? Maybe you'll stand on the Executor's bridge again."

"Perhaps." Piette echoed, but he knew that would never happen. His actions towards the end had helped, he'd realized what must be done and had carried out the orders, but that didn't change the years of service and crimes he had committed before he'd learned the truth of the Empire. He knew his chances of ever setting foot in space, let alone to command the Lady again were nothing, but a fantasy. The crimes he had committed against the galaxy were immense and could not be overlooked by the rebel council, not if they were to gain support once more from the other planets who had suffered under the Empire's iron fist. He knew he could fight the charges, claim that he was forced, that he had followed his orders only to survive and bide his time till he could lead a coup against the Emperor. That he had been controlled.

He hadn't, though. Once, he had been proud of his work, proud to inflict the change that would bring peace and order to a galaxy torn apart by the Clone Wars, proud to be the commander of the flagship, which would blaze their new path. That pride still remained, but it had become poisoned and tainted by the truth of what the Empire had become, what it had always truly been. 

He still hadn't shaken the cold feeling that had clung to him ever since he'd learned the truth of what, of who, he had devoted his life to all these years. He likely never would. 

"He's stabilizing."

Despite his exhaustion, despite his assuredness that he had lost the ability to feel anything beyond the barest outlines of emotions through the fog that had overtaken his mind, he found his head jerking up to regard the woman before him. His lips curled into a question he didn't know how to ask, but she was moving, taking a careful seat next to him on the crate where he had eventually ended up. 

"They aren't sure of the lasting damage yet, not with how extensively his body was already, well, the way it was, but he seems to be pulling through."

Piett nodded, trying to focus on the words, but all he could manage was the slow mantra of, 'He survived. Lord Vader survived. He'll live.' Some tension he hadn't even realized he'd been holding unraveled within him, and he felt his spine slump ever so slightly. It was an irrational response, but something about the idea of not being alone during the monumental shift in the universe, of not being the highest-ranking Imperial here on this base, was as close to comfort as he could achieve. 

He could see his relief wasn't shared, not in its entirety anyway, as the Princess glared at nothing in particular as she likely waited for him to say something.

"That is, relieving, to hear your highness." Piett offered carefully and saw her lips twitch into a grimace as the words. He waited a few moments before speaking up again. 

"I have a feeling you do not share my comfort in the idea of Lord Vader's recovery." He stated calmly, his tone softer than before, and it held no judgment, but she still flinched and cast him an almost guilty look. It seemed like she would tell him he was wrong, but after meeting his eyes, she slumped, the bluster was gone leaving behind a young, so amazingly young, woman who had seen and endured far too much and now found the end nothing like what she had expected.  
"It's not that I wanted him to die, you understand, I'm glad that he turned against the Emperor and even fought him to save Luke. But now Luke is acting like all is forgiven, acting like he didn't murder billions, didn't destroy the only home I'd ever known and torture me. I know he wasn't himself all that time, and he didn't know who we were, but-!" 

She cut off, having realized her voice was rising and others were starting to notice. He watched her take a steadying breath and stare ahead into nothing for a long moment, and Piett felt his heart ache as the lost expression on her face.

"But?" He prompted gently.

"But, he is my Father, and he was just as much a victim of the Emperor as everyone else for such a long time." Her voice turned small, and her tone dropped, so Piett had to strain to hear her over the base's bustle.

"Luke says he can see into him, can see the good in his heart, says that he still loves us. But, I just, I can't forgive him. I won't. Because it doesn't matter how it happened, he was not some mindless puppet! He was in control of his actions, and even if he couldn't break free of that evil master of his, he could have at least tried! And he didn't. Not even when it came to us, not when he knew he could kill us. It shouldn't matter that we were his children. He should have done something to stop it all." 

The silence was heavy between them as Piett absorbed the women's ire, her grief and turned it over with his own emotions surrounding the experience.

"You're right." He finally stated, his tone firm, and he waited till those soft brown eyes found his again, the silent plea for understanding and hope shining clearly there. 

"I, how can you say that?" 

She nearly pleaded, and Piett slowly loosened his military posture until he could lean slightly back onto the taller crate behind him.

"I served on the Executor for some time before being made Admiral. I was fresh from another assignment and more than a little star-struck at the idea of serving under Lord Vader on his personal flagship. In those days, I only knew of him from the holo's they showed at the academy and all the propaganda and rumors spread around through the other officers. I thought surely serving under him would be the greatest days of my entire career. That finally, I would be able to truly help the cause I believed so strongly in and support one of its founders."

She was watching him, and he turned away to look out over the base, forcing his tone to remain even as he continued. 

"The first time I saw him kill one of the bridge crew, I was only a few weeks into my command on the ship. I thought, surely, they had done something horrendous, and he'd learned of it before me. Perhaps he had already discussed the crime with Admiral Ozzel, and it was deemed the appropriate course of action. After all, surely a small comms error wasn't enough to snap a man's neck?" Piett could hear the hollow tone his voice took on as he recalled the numbing shock that had gripped him at the wet snap of the man's neck, not five feet from him. Darson, still barely into his career, dead in the blink of an eye. 

"I held onto that idea, that there was something bigger going on that a mere Captain newly in his post just wasn't a part of yet. I suppose I didn't want to acknowledge the truth of it all."

He felt the Princess' hand on his arm, the warmth of her body lean ever so slightly into his space as she listened intently to his greatest failing.

"Even as I wrote letter after letter to families of good men and women who they would never see again, I gripped that idea so tightly. Eventually, though, enough was enough. It took me eight senseless deaths to finally recognize that I was serving a monster, some sort of dark nightmare with powers that could only come from one's darkest imagination. I finally saw the reality of the man I had idolized, and I was terrified, little gods we all were, but more than that, I was furious. I was the Captain, had been chosen to lead and work alongside the crew of the Executor, and yet I had stood by as this man dared to kill the people I was meant to protect. How our leader was more of a threat to us than any rebel had ever been." 

"But you?" She trailed off as she stared at him with furrowed brows as if trying to understand how he had felt as she had but still sat here today to be relieved that the man he spoke of would recover. 

"I suppose I came to terms with the idea that I would not survive the war, whether it be due to an attack or because I too had proven a failure in the Dark Lord's eyes just like all those who perished before me. Because of that moment of acceptance, I began to put myself between him and the crew. Every time there was a malfunction, a miscalculation, another lost fight or trail, I made damned sure that I was there to be the first face he saw, the first outlet for his rage."

He reached up and gently placed his fingers on his neck, where the pressure of an invisible hand had rested so often.

"He hurt you." She said it with such certainty that only another who had felt his anger could, and Piett nodded.

"Oh, many times. He choked me into unconsciousness and threw me around so frequently I often never slept anywhere but the med bays on my off hours."

"Then how can you, how could you ever not hate him? How can you stand to even see him now?" Leia bit out, her eyes blazing, for him of all people. For the way, he had suffered at her father's hand. 

Piett allowed his hand to drop from his collar, and he met her eyes as he spoke his next words.

"Because despite the fact that he knew what I was doing, he is no fool, he never went after the crew again, and he never killed me. He hurt me time and time again, but I survived where others did not. My rage at the situation burned out my fear, and because of that, I was able to speak with him, and for the first time likely ever, he listened. He took what I had to say into account. He allowed me my command of the Lady. I was still afraid, of course I was, and I suspect he knew that, but I was no longer influenced by it. It became simply a fact, and I suspect Lord Vader had never encountered that in his officers because things began to change."

Leia looked away, her expression still angry, but Piett could see the hesitant curiosity there as well, the daughter still looking for hope that her father may not be only a monster.

"Your brother spoke of the light in him. I'm no force user, so I can't say if what he is seeing is real, but I can confidently say that his demeanor changed once we began to communicate. Not publicly, I suspect now that he couldn't risk any news reaching the Emperor. On the bridge and in others' view, he was still cold and savage at times in his anger and ferocity, but during private meetings held in his office, he spoke intelligently with me. He went over plans and manifests. He checked the crew rosters and schedules and charts. Under it all, he was an extremely competent commander, and he showed it in those private meetings. It was eventually in one such meeting, where he confided in me the truth about the Emperor and his plans."

The woman next to him jerked, and her eyes flashed to him.

"Vader? He told you? He was a part of the plans?"

"It seems that I managed to earn his trust. I know it seems hard to believe, but Lord Vader had been fighting, slowly and in such small moves that no one would have ever known, but he had been working for years behind the scenes alone to slowly build-up to the day that the Emperor would fall. The day he found out about Commander Skywalker, though, it changed everything. He became obsessed with the idea of training him, of having him stand at his side the day he made his move, but he never did anything in halves the Dark Lord. A deep desire to not be alone in his plans to defeat his master turned into an obsession, and I suspect that he found himself so overtaken by it that he forgot that only I knew of his actual intentions and that to any other he appeared intent on killing the poor sod, including Skywalker. But the fact stands that all this? This was possible due to his years of planning by Lord Vader and the thousands of souls aboard the Executor who stood by me as I made the final play to bring Lord Vader's plans to fruition." 

It was an odd relief to finally have someone know it all. His crew had likely seen the changes happening between their commanders, and in the end, he had told them at least part of it. To discuss his odd relationship with the Dark Lord over the last two years, however, felt almost like he was sharing some significant weight. He was still unsure if he should be saying anything, it was never discussed how things would work after the fact, but Piett suspected that Lord Vader wouldn't mind him making an exception in their silence in this case. The truth of it was that had the plan gone the way they suspected it might, neither of them would have survived. Even now, a long message was encrypted into his personal files on the Executor, which explained everything, down to the minuscule detail and instructions for the crew on how things were meant to proceed, keyed only to open to General Veers or Commander Skywalker in preparation for his demise. But he'd survived. Lord Vader seemed to have, as well. There were no plans for this timeline of events. Firmus supposed, as he watched the young woman next to him process his words that Lord Vader would simply have to defer to his good judgment for now, at least until he was back on his feet. 

"Thank you."

Her tone was soft, and her expression remained troubled, but he could see a hard edge to her eyes now.

"You deserve to know the truth." He replied plainly, earning him a small nod.

"I, well, I can't say I'll ever forgive him for what he did. He doesn't deserve to be forgiven. But I might learn to understand it more, to understand him more."

Firmus inclined his head, giving her a melancholy smile. "I believe that is fair, your Highness."

She watched him for a long moment, those dark, intelligent eyes pulling at his own seams and the dark smudges in his past. 

"And what of you, Admiral? Do you forgive him? How will you choose to move forward?"

The clever girl, he should have seen this coming. 

"Do I forgive him? I suppose I do not. One doesn't watch a man kill casually and find a place for forgiveness in his heart, nor does the hunted ever forgive the hunter after years of torment and fear. If I was a braver or stupider man, I suspect I might have pitied him, but he is too strong to be pitied." 

Piett took a long breath and felt the comforting pull at his wound once more. 

"I think I came to respect him, and I think that I understand him, at least a little as well. He is not a good man, but he is determined, and I believe he has the capacity to be a fair one if he allows himself to be and surrounds himself with those who are willing to be patient with him. I heard the stories of General Skywalker during the Clone Wars, though I never knew the connection. I firmly believe that war and fear and death can change a man in a thousand ways, but at their core, they remain the same."

He regarded the princess before finishing his thought.

"It is because of that logic that I believe the 'hero with no fear' is still in there."

"Maybe you're right." Leia agreed softly. 

"As for what I plan to do from here, I fear that won't be up to me, but I am oddly okay with that, I suppose given I never really thought I'd make it this far. It will be my privilege to see the galaxy begin to right itself, even if I have no role in it. I will offer myself up for information freely, though. It was an honor to serve alongside you, your highness."

Leia looked at him with open suspicion now as she moved ever slightly closer for reasons beyond him. 

"Why do you say that like you won't be around to see the new republic flourish yourself? Like I won't be seeing you again?" 

Her voice was dipping into a ton he didn't recognize now, and it made him smile as he was once again reminded of her age.

"Princess Organa, I am a war criminal. As I said, when asked, I have already agreed to give the Council every piece of information I have that would help them dismantle the remaining holds the Empire has and will do everything in my power to help your people put an end to this war with as little more bloodshed as possible. After that, however, I suspect I'll be locked away for whatever remains of my life as penance for all the pain and destruction I facilitated while serving the Empire. If not that, then I will be executed alongside the other leaders of the Empire, which I also willingly accept." 

"You will not!"

Piett startled as the princess shot to her feet to stand before him, her face furious as she looked down at him now. 

"Princess…" He tried to reason, but she cut him off.

"You were the reason our plan succeeded! You helped us bring down the Emperor! You fought with us!"

"That doesn't change the fact that I fought against you for years."

"It does."   
She stated with such confidence and finality that he almost believed her. He wanted to, but he knew how this would go, and he hated that someone so young would need to learn the harsh reality of it so soon. But he supposed he would allow her this comfort, at least for now when there was so much joy to be had in her life. 

"As you say, your highness."

She gave him a glare, likely picking up on his tone, but a moment later, her gaze softened.

"This is a new beginning for the entire galaxy, Admiral, and though you may not believe it, that means it's a new beginning for all of us as well. Don't give up on it before we even get started? Trust us like you did before." 

As she spoke, he knew he was sat before the woman, who would be the front of a new era of peace and gods if he didn't wish at that moment to get to watch her do it.

"And please call me Leia. We're on the same side now after all."

Despite the uncertainty and all that had been lost today, all the guilt and sorrow that weighed on his mind, staring up at the woman before him, the princess of a lost planet shining at the beginning of a blossoming future, Firmus Piett felt his own lips curling into a smile. 

"Yes, Princess Leia."

**Author's Note:**

> Lemme know what you think! I've never written for the OT but I had fun with it~ I think Piett and Leia would get a long really well since they seem to have similar values and mannerisms.


End file.
